These prayers are new to me. Hopefully they will be to you, too. I found them in the book A Manual of Practical Devotion to St. Joseph by Fr. Patrignani, SJ. The book is a veritable bible of means of practicing devotion to St. Joseph. I have found it edifying to read, as someone who trusts immensely in the intercession and spiritual guidance of St. Joseph.

A Prayer for Purity

O holy St. Joseph, father and guardian of virgins, to whose fidelity was confided Jesus, innocence itself, and Mary, the Virgin of virgins; I supplicate myself and conjure you, through Jesus and Mary, this sacred deposit which is so dear to your heart, to grant that, preserved from all sin, and perfectly pure in mind, heart, and body, I may have the happiness of always serving Jesus and Mary very faithfully. Amen.

Ejaculatory Prayer

Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I give you my heart and my life. Jesus, Joseph and Mary, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, grant that I may die in your holy company. (three hundred day’s indulgence, applicable to the souls in Purgatory)

Prayer for a person with a laborious occupation:

Blessed Joseph, who have passed your life in the painful labors of a humble profession, I take you as my model and my protector. Obtain for me that I may bear patiently the pains and fatigues of my state, that, like you, sanctifying my labors, I may merit a crown in Heaven. Amen.

Prayer to Implore the Protection of St. Joseph

What consolation do I feel, O my admirable and powerful protector, in hearing your servant, St. Teresa, assure us that no one ever invoked you in vain, and that all those who have a true devotion to you, and who seek your help with confidence, are always heard! Animated with a like confidence, I have recourse to you, O worthy spouse of the Virgin of virgins; I take refuge at your feet; and a sinner though I am, I dare to present myself tremblingly to you. Do not reject my humble prayers, O you that have borne the glorious name of Father of Jesus, listen favorably to them, and deign to intercede with Him who has been wiling to be called your Son, and Who has always honored you as His father. Amen.

Act of Consecration to St. Joseph

O blessed St. Joseph, I consecrate myself to your honor, and give myself entirely to you. Be always my father, my protector, and my guide, in the way of salvation. Obtain for me a great purity of heart, and a practical love of the interior life. After your example, may I do all my actions for the greater glory of God, in union with the divine hearts of Jesus and Mary. And, in fine, deign, blessed Joseph, to make me participate in the delights of your holy death. Amen.

Even though, in the past, he has painted himself as a pro-abort at times, in terms of concrete action, has any president done as much as Donald Trump to support the pro-life cause? Not only was he the first sitting president to directly address and, in a way, take part in the March for Life, he named Jan 22, the anniversary of the worst, most murderous, most unconstitutional and immoral Supreme Court decision ever (Roe v Wade), Sanctity of Human Life Day:

President Donald Trump proclaimed Monday, January 22, 2018, “National Sanctity of Human Life Day.” The proclamation comes on the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion in the U.S. throughout the entire nine months of a mother’s pregnancy.

Trump made the proclamation on Friday, as hundreds of thousands of pro-life pilgrims converged upon Washington D.C. for the annual March for Life.

“Today, we focus our attention on the love and protection each person, born and unborn, deserves regardless of disability, gender, appearance, or ethnicity,” begins Trump’s proclamation.

“Reverence for every human life, one of the values for which our Founding Fathers fought, defines the character of our Nation,” Trump continued in the proclamation. “Today, it moves us to promote the health of pregnant mothers and their unborn children.”

In doing this, however, he was just continuing a practice of Republican presidents since Reagan in 1984:

President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day in 1984, making note that millions of U.S. lives lost to abortion in the 11 years since Roe v. Wade — already by then “over tenfold the number of Americans lost in all our Nation’s wars” — was “a tragedy of stunning dimensions that stands in sad contrast to our belief that each life is sacred.”…….

……….It was continued every year throughout the administration of Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush. Bill Clinton then dropped it during his eight years as president, and George W. Bush then resumed it again for his eight years in office.

Barack Obama did not declare National Sanctity of Human Life Day during the eight years of his administration.

Go figure.

Trump’s reinstated the “Mexico City” policy, forbidding federal funding of abortion overseas. He nominated a solidly pro-life Supreme Court Justice. He wants to defund Planned Barrenhood, if Congress can ever pass a new budget, instead of endless continuing resolutions. These place him as equal the better Republican presidents since Reagan. But by attending the March for Life, did Trump – whose personal life is a catalog of immorality – catapult himself into position as the most pro-life president ever? Could it be, that contrary to his predecessors, he is less a politician than a man of some convictions, less likely to be bent by the polling or the political winds?

I thank El Paso-based JMJHF Productions for all their work, especially their continued release of excellent catechesis material from Fr. Michael Rodriguez (on which, more later, God willing), but I really really appreciate their recent uploads of one of Fr. Rodriguez’ recent annual pilgrimages to Quito, Ecuador. The churches of Quito and its environs are shockingly, amazingly beautiful, true glories for not only the Church but the entire human race. This is the kind of heart that makes the soul sing and gives us creatures of mud and dust the slightest glimpses of heavenly glory. It is also the polar opposite of the modernist, often intentionally soul-crushing trash that has passed for Church art and architecture of the past 60-70 years. This damnable trend has been intentional, as fallen men sought to remake the Church in their own image, rather than aspire to follow the Truth of Jesus Christ.

The first video shows the Procession on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Good Success, February 2nd. The miraculous statue of Our Lady of Good Success is taken from the cloistered upper choir three times a year and placed above the main altar of the Convent Church to be venerated by the public. Fr. Michael Rodríguez offered the Traditional Latin Mass daily in the Conceptionist Church & Convent–home of Our Lady of Good Success (and look at how many souls assisted! The church is packed for a TLM, probably the first most all of these people, aside from the pilgrims (who were a tiny part of the crowd) had attended in decades, if ever). The technical name of the Church is, “Iglesia de La Limpia Concepcion”. This first monastery in Quito was established in September of 1575. Fr. Rodriguez also led pilgrims daily in praying the Holy Rosary and Novena to Our Lady of Good Success in front of the miraculous statue and gave spiritual conferences every evening on the major themes of Grace, Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Blessed be Jesus Christ and His most pure Mother!

Old town Quito is also beautiful in its own right, and also surprisingly well lit. It looks to me like many hundreds, possibly thousands, took part in the procession. How beautiful. What a glorious site Good Father Romanowski, formerly of the FSSP apostolate in Guadalajara and now pastor of a parish in Naples, FL, seems to have led the procession, in the traditional manner:

The next video is the one that really touches me – in both positive and negative ways. Ecuador has never been a rich country. Yet look at what pious souls built decades and centuries ago, out of their love for God and the Blessed Mother! And it was only right they do so – indeed it was a positive duty – to build the most beautiful, uplifting structures imaginable for the glory of God (which is His due) and for the good of souls. The modernist, concrete-and-sheetrock brutalist monstrosities that pass for Church construction in the past 70 years or so are the very antithesis of what is good for souls and properly due God. Even worse, you might even say sinfully, was the willful destruction of so much beauty created in total faith by previous generations of Catholics out of a perverse desire to create a new and false religion. Indeed, the profanation of Church art and architecture is a deliberate representation of the new religion promoted by modernist/leftists that must always stand in total opposition to the Faith of our Fathers.

There is a wide range of beauty below – parishes, basilica, cathedral, monasteries cum museums, etc. I have always adored Spanish colonial Catholic art, and the works of Latin American devotion that flowed from it for a century and a half after Spain lost her New World colonies. It is beautiful, wonderful stuff, treasures for the whole human race to glory in. These works also point to a time where the Faith was so utterly central to the lives of souls that I think we have a hard time even imagining it today, let alone emulating it in our own lives. We are so distracted by our trinkets of technology and our unheard of riches that our comprehension of the eternal is paltry and distracted. Perhaps I am speaking more for myself than for most of you, if so, I do not mean to cast aspersions.

I have exhausted my limited vocabulary in coming up with superlatives for this video and the Catholic treasures contained therein. Lord, may I go to Quito or other Latin American places soon, places where the ravages of wreckovation did not occur, or were at least kept to an absolute minimum! Look at all the altar rails! Look at the high altars still extant, and the prie deuxs, and the wonderful elevated pulpits (use them!), and the gilt ceilings and incredible reredos and the polychrome statues and original, extremely high quality and eminently Catholic paintings and……..you get the point. Thank you again to JMJHF Productions for putting these videos together. I know it takes a great deal of time, and this is not their full time job. Please consider helping them out, or the St. Vincent Ferrer Foundation, which also supports the work of good souls and Fr. Rodriguez!

The full list of sites in the video is below:

Conceptionist Monastery Church (Iglesia de La Limpia Concepcion), home of Our Lady of Good Success, in which Our Lady appeared to Mother Mariana.
Santo Domingo (St Dominic)
San Agustin (St Augustine)
Carmen del Atlo (Carmelite – where St Mariana, Lily of Quito used to live)
San Francisco
Santa Catalina
La Merced
La Compania (Jesuit, perhaps most glorious Church in the Americas…)
National Basilica to the Sacred Heart
(Cathedral Metropolitana) Basilica of the National Vow
Santa Barbara
Carmen del Bajo
Santa Teresita in La Mariscal
Church & Monastery of Guapalo
The Jesuit School where miraculous image of Our Lady of Quito is kept.

For those materialists who say, oh, this money is wasted, think of the poor who suffered want and privation when all this money was poured into churches like this – wouldn’t this money better have been spent on them, on alleviating their sufferings? But the poor we will always have with us, and I do not mean that in a cavalier manner in the least. Instead, think of how many souls happily gave of what little they had, which was infinitely less than any of us, to help render honor and glory to God and His Church to help build structures like this. Think of the grace that poured out on them and the world at large through such noble sacrifice. It is simply a wholly different and utterly incompatible mindset – that of faith and not of this world. Those who have it, have it, and understand instantly the willingness to deny self to give right glory to God, and those who don’t, simply don’t.

When I see amazing structures like this, and the immense good they still do for souls, and I ponder the opportunity we have locally – probably the only such opportunity the vast majority of us will ever have – to build a church that can really make an artistic statement, can really contribute to the great artistic treasure of the Church (one of the few such contributions to have been made in our lifetimes), I just think, we cannot mess this up. Iwould happily trade 500 seats for an amazing reredo, or a stupendous altar, or marble-covered walls, or original works of art. Heck, there are warehouses full of the stuff in Europe and Mexico, removed from any of the several churches being torn down weekly. It’s not even that expensive, much of it, certainly not compared to making it from scratch, if such can even be obtained. Anyway, I won’t rant on that anymore. This post is already much longer than I intended, and few outside this Diocese of Dallas care, and understandably so.

……….a couple of bits of good local news. First, starting with the first full week of Lent, Father Jason Cargo, pastor of St. Joseph parish in Richardson, will be having Confession every weekday from 5-6pm. This will be a permanent change, not just for Lent. So in addition to Confession at St. Mark in Plano for several hours on Wed, Fri, and Sat, and most days at St. Jude in Allen (usually just a little before Mass, times vary), another parish will be having Confession every day except Sunday. Which last bit is odd, that seems to be a post-VII thing, not having Confession on Sundays (I understand many priests are overburdened with Masses, but still), whereas in the old days Confession before, during, and after Mass was de rigeuer throughout the Church. Nevertheless, for those who live and work in the North Dallas area, there are a growing number of options for Confession, and that is a most blessed thing. Father Cargo is a good priest and I look forward to seeing what other changes he brings to St. Joseph. Maybe some Latin Mass (probably Novus Ordo) at some point? It might be a possibility. Keep praying.

Again, this will start the first full week of Lent (Mon Feb 19), it is not available right now. I always prefer when Septuagesima starts after Candlemas, so there is no mixing of penitential and joyful seasons. That won’t be the case this year, but only by a few days – Septuagesima Sunday is Jan 28.

Another local note, if you are looking for some wholesome family entertainment this weekend (Jan 12/13), the St. Paul Institute is presenting Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore at Faustina Academy in Irving. Showtime is 7pm both nights. Tickets are $5 per person or $20 per family, so it’s quite a deal. The performers are children, mostly high school aged but some younger. It should be a most enjoyable performance. All details below:

A final happy item, one that is not specifically local but most edifying and Catholic, is a Youtube channel I stumbled upon called Tumblar House, which feature a weekly series of video interviews of the well known traditional Catholic writer Charles Coulombe. I’ve found these video dicussions/question and answer sessions very helpful and enjoyable, and hope you will, too. They cover a wide range of topics, including some many of those explosive issues related to traditional Catholicism – monarchism, the problems of the cult of democracy, the SSPX, Pope Francis, etc. Coulombe is both historian and semi-sociologist, and much of his knowledge is well outside the mainstream and covers topics frequently ignored by other specialists in his field. I don’t always agree with Dr. Coulombe’s conclusions or advice, but I always find it interesting and informative. It’s definitely worth a listen (I repeat, I don’t always agree with the conclusions reached or every statement made, but I do think it is all worth your time). A few of the topics I found interesting:

Anyway, you get the idea, maybe everyone was already aware of this channel, but I just found it a couple of weeks ago. Good discussion on a range of subjects outside what is normally covered even in the excellent sermons on Sensus Fidelium. Plus, they have a more conversational tone and many may find them easier to listen to than sermons by priests, or at least as an alternative or in the form of a break.

I sorely wish I had had the means to share this with folks before the event, but it was deliberately cordoned in a veil of silence. Nevertheless, an historic event occurred during the Octave of Christmas this year, when, on Dec 30 (thanks to KB and SB for the correction), a Traditional Latin Mass was offered at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dallas. Father Thomas Longua, pastor of Mater Dei FSSP parish, offered the Mass. Our family was unable to attend and I have received few reports on the Mass, the crowd, or the participants (I do not believe Bishop Burns participated), but there are a few pictures available.

Apparently the Mass was requested by some interested folks and new Bishop Burns, along with Cathedral Rector Stephen Bierschenk, approved. The occasion, in addition to the feast, was a retreat for the altar boys and their families.

The Mass took place at the side altar where the Blessed Sacrament is reposed. That is of course appropriate for the TLM – though our cathedral at one time had a most beautiful high altar, which was unfortunately and, I think it may be fairly said, callously ripped out during the wreckovations of the early 70s. Indeed, the former marble altar rail was turned into curbs for the parking lot! Just a slight triumph of expedience over piety……..

At any rate, some pics, and a bit more commentary below:

I am aware that this is not the first request to offer a TLM at the Cathedral. Certainly, it is not the first since Summorum Pontificum of 2007. So it is quite significant that approval was granted. There is a sense in this Diocese that our new bishop Edward Burns, is more sympathetic to traditional Catholics and the offering of the TLM than was his predecessor, Cardinal Kevin Farrell. There is growing hope that Bishop Burns may do away with the public, written policy instituted by then Bishop Farrell of banning offering of the TLM outside of the designated FSSP parish. Certainly there remains much unmet demand for the TLM, even with the explosive growth of Mater Dei, due to Mater Dei’s awkward location (I should know, I live near it and don’t want it to move) and the diocese’s size.

Nevertheless, it is certainly something to pray and hope for. The possibility appears much brighter than it did a year or so ago. Unfortunately, there was expressed a wish to keep this event quiet until after it happened, so we may still have a long way to go.

Compare and contrast the bare offering table above, and the former high altar:

I’m not supposed to say this, it might hurt “the cause,” but different religion, much?

UPDATE: A local confrere informed me that this was indeed the first TLM offered in the Cathedral at least since the ascension of the, ahhhh……..one might say problematic, Bishop Thomas Tschoeppe in 1970. Tschoeppe’s predecessor Bishop Gorman had apparently continued to offer the TLM regularly, until he was forced into retirement (very much against his will) in 1970. Bishop Gorman was known for his stalwart orthodoxy and adherence to the Faith he was raised in, the Faith of our fathers, Bishop Tschoeppe, for allowing the seminary to collapse into sodomitical anarchy and general liberalism. If what I am told is correct, one of Tschoeppe’s first acts was to oversee the wreckovation of the cathedral, including the altar rail cum parking curbs imbroglio. Anyway, a bit of local history.

“Christ of the Fishermen.” Reader LaGallina sent me the following description of a beautiful bit of Catholic culture, placed where the Brownsville Ship Channel meets the Gulf of Mexico (roughly).

From La Gallina:

The statue is called “el Cristo de los Pescadores” and is turned slightly to face the channel and greet the shrimp boats when they are coming back to shore. A Brownsville family brought this from Italy back in the 90s (I think) after they won a settlement with the shrimp boat company after their two sons were killed on the boat. They also hold a huge party on the grounds around the statue which includes a public rosary (with a gigantic rosary made by an elderly gent from Port Isabel), catered food for everyone (invited or not), fireworks, and of course the ever-present “matachines.” (Do you think the bishops before Vatican 2 had matachines dancers at their Catholic events?)

No, I don’t think so.

LaGallina also apprised me of Francis’ elevation of a Father Mario Alberto Aviles to be auxiliary Bishop of Brownsville. This is noteworthy for the fact that Fr. Aviles comes from the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, which operates one of the few “canonically regular” TLM in the Rio Grande Valley area (the only other one of which I am aware is at the Brownsville cathedral, if that one is still going. Perhaps LaGallina can confirm).

Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville is reputed to be pretty solidly orthodox and relatively friendly to the TLM. Coming from a branch of the Oratorians based mostly in northern Mexico which is widely known for its liturgical and doctrinal orthodoxy (though it is quite small), it may be hoped that Bishop-elect Aviles may increase this disposition even more. I know several readers who have assisted at the St. Jude Thaddeus parish in Pfarr administered by the Oratorians, and they all speak highly of the beautiful TLM and solid catechesis offered there.

However, it should be noted that Bishop-elect Aviles hasn’t been pastor of St. Jude Thaddeus for 15 years, so I cannot really speak to his personal qualities or adherence to tradition. I am told he seems down to earth and pretty solid overall.

Now, El Cristo de los Pescadores. Very nice:

Statues like this, and even entire parishes, have long been dedicated to Catholic mariners in major ports around the world. For my money, one of the most beautiful parishes in the world, Our Lady of Bon Succours in Montreal, has a heavy nautical emphasis and a close association with the maritime trades. Why, several of the Apostles including St. Peter were, of course, pescadores, themselves.

It’s another aspect of the still heartbreakingly deteriorating Catholic culture that deserves widespread revival. Good on the family for dedicating a lovely statue like this to the shrimpers and other seafarers of the south Texas coast.

A nice sermon from Padre Romo, who I guess I can identify since his website does the same. As someone who has struggled with addiction to drink and drug, I always find the Catholic approach to the consumption of liquor and other intoxicating substances so wonderfully balanced and reasonable. While I, due to my past excesses and the tendency, over many years, I developed to consume intoxicants to a sinful extent, can no longer partake of any drink or mind-altering drug, I appreciate the fact that the Church does not take the position of some protestants or the non-Christian Mormons, who excoriate all use of drink as sinful. That is not the case. How could it be, when our very Lord Himself confected wine out of water, when He uses wine as a means of transmitting His very being, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament?

The issue, of course, is moderation. Like all goods, they can be abused if consumed immoderately. This may be basic for some, but I find in this sermon many helpful reminders, and a particularly timely one during this penitential season of Advent. Speaking of, have you charted out a plan of penance for Advent? Lenten penances get so much focus, but Advent as a penitential season is almost universally forgotten. I was particularly heartened and edified by the sermon a priest at out local parish gave this First Sunday of Advent on that very topic -what were we going to do for penance in this penitential season? I’m particularly glad this year that my vacation schedule will start right before Christmas and then go through the 7th, meaning I am off work the entire 12 days of Christmas. Thus, I hope to use Advent as the time of preparation for the joyous time to come, just as we should use this life as our time of preparation for our real life, or eternal life, which we pray will be in Heaven.

I also lacked the time yesterday to put up a post for the Novena of Our Lady of Guadalupe. That Novena should have started Sunday or yesterday. At any rate, just in case, here it is:

Our Lady of Guadalupe, according to THY message in Mexico I venerate THEE as the Virgin Mother of the true God for whom we live, the Creator of all the world, Maker of heaven and earth. In spirit I kneel before thy most holy image which thou didst miraculously imprint upon the cloak of the Indian Juan Diego, and with the faith of the countless numbers of pilgrims who visit thy shrine, I beg thy for this favor:

[Mention your request].

Remember, O Immaculate Virgin, the words thou hast spoken to thy devout client: “I am a merciful mother to thee and to all thy people who love me and trust in me and invoke my help. I listen to their lamentations and solace all their sorrows and sufferings.” I beg thee to be a merciful mother to me, because I sincerely love thee and trust in thee and invoke thy help. I entreat thee, our Lady of Guadalupe, to grant my request, if this should be the will of God, in order that I may bear witness to thy love, thy compassion, thy help and protection. Do not forsake me in my needs.

Recite “Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us” and Hail Mary three times.

My wife and kids were in the first one last year. I’m sure they’ll be there again for this 3 mile pilgrimage across Irving to the campus of the University of Dallas:

Do call Julie if you can help with shuttle driving. Bring your Marian flags, your banners, make this a work of witness! i cannot attend, I will be at work and am using my last unused vacation day for the Immaculate Conception.

I’ve been intending to return this blog’s focus to the Dallas Diocese, more as it was in the beginning as I head toward the 8th anniversary of these little rants of mine, so here is another list of the many upcoming events this December at Mater Dei FSSP parish:

Since the Feast of the Immaculate Conception falls on a Friday and is a 1st Class Feast, eating meat is allowed, yes?

Via Rorate, a PBS News video on Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, NE. It covers the Gregorian chant that is of course a central part of the seminary’s daily life, as well as the CD the Fraternity produced last year. That record apparently “topped the charts.” I doubt that means it’s sold a million copies, but one takes what one can get. In fact, the second video gives a bit more coverage of the seminary’s vocal efforts.

I was tickled to see a local boy young man presently enrolled in the seminary around the 1:41-1:44 mark and at 2:14-7.

I wonder if the people who saw this segment thought: “Finally, some priests who look like priests?” Love to see all the birettas and cassocks! Bring back the tonsure!

A bit more for you:

The album is available for sale on most online music outlets, including the Christ-denying (well……) Amazon.

Reader MFG sent the following link, and a very helpful summary, on the following sermon regarding the grave error of so-called religious liberty. The sermon generally follows the logic of Christopher Ferrara’s Liberty: The God That Failed. It is especially harsh on the founding and ordering of the US government, wherein endarkenment deists established a government built upon Lockean principles, with the state stepping into the place of God as the supreme arbiter and ultimate object of allegiance.

But I thought MFGs summary was as concise and as good (or better) than anything I can write, so here it is, along with the sermon. I add a few thoughts onto his.:

Wow – this is a quick but incisive sermon on religious liberty’s dangers. It’s from a slightly different angle than what’s covered in the past. We could unpackage it for weeks…Here are a few takeways.

Founding Fathers thought they needed to set limits on Christ’s reign [Informed by endarkenment philosophy, especially that of Locke and Hobbes, that was indeed the case]

They undid time and founded a government that was pre-Christian in its governing philosophy. [a return to paganism, undoing 1700 years of Christian civilization]

They founded a government which relied on man’s own reasoning unaided by revelation or sanctifying grace (i.e. based on darkness/blindness).

It was worse than the governments of the pre-Christian Jews who at least had revelation to guide [And had the excuse of ignorance]

The US Govt is like the Roman Pantheon – people can have their own gods as long as these gods are not exclusive or hostile to government (religious freedom) [But what matters most to the US gov’t, or where its cultural loyalties lie, can change radically over time. For the first 150 years, the US gov’t was more or less a mainline protestant gov’t, because that was the dominant culture. But the seeds of that culture’s destruction were sewn in the US founding, so that 60 years or so ago sexular leftism became culturally dominant, and now the US gov’t serves to advance THAT culture, which is intrinsically hostile to Christianity. Of course, it took decades of unprecedented, dedicated mass infiltration and undermining of existing cultural bulwarks to achieve that switch, but here we are, and I do not think there is any going back, not with this present form of gov’t.]

By keeping all religions equal, there needs to be a referee to manage or balance these religions – hence the government steps in.

To permit the govt. to be a referee, the people elevated government above religion

State becomes the supreme god. [yep]

My thoughts [MFG’s thoughts]: This accurately and deeply describes our situation – governing in blindness. It also explains why liberalism and to some extent conservativism (or GOP Republicanism) becomes its own orthodoxy and religion. When someone opposes a political policy that contradicts church’s teaching (unjust/unlimited wars for example), the person is treated like a heretic or apostate (whether on the left or right).

Shreds post-conciliar notions of ecumenism, don’t it?

I really liked MFG’s summary and hope it turns into a basis for discussion. As he noted, this is a very complex subject and could take many hours of argument to fully analyze, but even as it stands, I think the sermon very much worth listening to (it’s only about 15 minutes) and considering. Another great upload from Sensus Fidelium. At core, it reveals we get the society we make. If we turn away from God and try to create a secular humanist paradise, human “paradise” (as in not) is what we will get.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the notion that the US as founded was disordered at best and a diabolical inversion of right government at worst, the key point to take away, I think, is that any government, any human society, not oriented with Jesus Christ as its visible Head and King is doomed to failure. All human creations fail. Only the Church, wounded though she presently is (and has been at a few times in the past), has survived, because the Church is not a human construct. It has a human element, prone to failure and corruption, but it will always retain its supernatural, perfect, indestructible element.

If we wish to create human societies that will endure, we shall have to do the same. But it’s been often said, our fallen natures make us prey to self-destruction.